David Farrar: The Marsden Fund changes will boost university rankings

The Herald has another story with the usual suspects complaining that Judith Collins cut off the woke research gravy train by requiring funding to go on actual scientific research rather than how to create a Treaty of Waitangi compliant tax system.

The legacy media have run probably ten times as many stories attacking the changes and labelling them controversial, as they did highlighting some of the projects that were previously funded that was nothing more than woke activism seeking funds.

One aspect the media have not focused on is that the changes made by Collins will actually boost global rankings for our eight NZ universities. Why? Because 59% of the Times HE rankings are based on research environment and quality.

And the largest sub-factor is citation impact at 15%. They look at “the average number of times a university’s published work is cited by scholars globally”

Now how many global citations do you think the following will get:

• a critical gaze to the privileging of Pākehā-centred narratives in current research on roadside “Big Things” and “Weaving together feminist, participatory, and filmic geographies, this project seeks to re-centre alternative stories currently hidden in the Big Things’ shadows
• create opportunities to rekindle the ancient connection to the stars and re-imagine the meaning of death, while also advancing understandings about the practical application of Māori astronomy in contemporary times

It will be somewhere between zero and one probably.

Now below are the types of research projects that will get more funding in future:

• Can dietary lignans reduce abnormal cell growth?
• How do tectonic plates lock together?
• Are molecular metals like metals or molecules? A case study of superheated gallium clusters

These research projects, when completed, will be of interest to scientists globally and get cited multiple times. This will in turn boost the scores for NZ universities and boost them up the global rankings. It is a win-win.

David Farrar runs Curia Market Research, a specialist opinion polling and research agency, and the popular Kiwiblog where this article was sourced. He previously worked in the Parliament for eight years, serving two National Party Prime Ministers and three Opposition Leaders.